iTunes has new challengers, Apple is looking to make Siri better and more

Google Music and Amazon Cloud Player take on iTunes Match. Who wins? The mobile music scene is not going to be easy to sort. We have solutions such as Spotify and Rdio, but iTunes is always the incumbent, while Amazon and Google are attempting to compete. Cloud storage makes sense, but what is the answer? Via Ars Technica, more here.

Turn Life Into a Video Game With This Dope 8-Bit Camera App - A new iOS app allows you to turn any picture into an 8-bit photograph. This is not only just a fun application, but it allows you to turn any photograph into the console image of your choice. If you’re missing some 8-bit in your life, check it out. Via Gizmodo, more here.

Yelp adding hygiene ratings to New York and San Francisco restaurant listings – Some people are hygiene fiends, the rest of us have eaten Army food. But, when we go out to eat, we hope to have clean meals. Yelp is a terrific app and the addition of hygiene concerns can only help. Via Engadget, more here.

Samsung May Tackle The iPad Mini With An 8-Inch Galaxy Note – The iPad Mini has been the runaway hit of the season. Samsung is attempting to capitalize on it with their newest offering, the 8-inch Galaxy Note. The Note offers a pen with digitizer that offers best in class communication with a tablet via stylus. While Samsung offers a variety of 7″ (or plus) tablets, none of them sell like the iPad Mini. Via TechCrunch, more here.

Apple job description outlines goal to evolve Siri as a distinct, recognizable character – While Siri is often referred to as the Apple Beta program that failed, they are continuously improving it. Whether or not Siri is the best at voice control (it’s not) it is still a key factor in determining how voice control evolves. I like what Siri does to Google voice search/control and other competitors because it drives them to be better. Via 9to5Mac, more here.

Google Glass Ain’t Dead! Google Files For Virtual Keyboard Patent in Relation To Glass - I think almost every technologist wants Google Glass to succeed. Via competition, it can push other technologies forward. If you’re a Google user you are excited for the possibilities but most are just looking forward to wearable computing. Any which way, it will be a defining technology of the era. Via Droid Life, more here.

Nielsen: Smartphone Battle Ready To Rage In Brazil, Russia, India - Any businessperson worth their salt looks to the BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China) countries as indicators of future growth. One of the reasons I’ve challenged Apple’s majority is their inattention to emerging markets, but they are starting to take a look. These markets have billions of unaligned consumers to make a choice. Via TechCrunch, more here.

Nexus 4 Wireless Charging Orb Could Arrive in February - According to Norwegian retailer Dustin Home, the wireless charging Orb for the Nexus 4 could arrive in February. Having been shown off on Nexus 4 unveiling day as the coolest accessory in town, we still have yet to see it find its way into the hands of anyone outside of Google. That’s not surprising, though, Nexus accessories almost always show up months after debuting during launch. I can’t wait for the orb, but why did it take so long? Via Droid Life, more here.

LG Remains Committed To Nexus 4 Production, Even As New Nexus Rumors Swirl - So the Nexus 4 has been tough get a hold of. And people have rumored that there is a Nexus 5 on its way (5″ screen, nobody knows the real internals). LG keeps saying Google told them the wrong “demand” details (a very very real detail for every business and logistics person), but refuse to honor any complicity. But LG shot themselves in the foot; they created the best smartphone to date, and let alleged demand get the better of them. If not for the absolutely amazing device the Nexus 4 is, both companies would be sunk, but LG got a big boost from a very real Nexus device, and Google from an OS which many (including yours truly) believe outshines all others. Via Droid Life, more here.

Has Google Finally Discontinued the Nexus Q? I’ve actually always wanted a Nexus Q, but I have a Google TV, so it is a bit redundant. The smartphone is clearly not the way to the living room, but you have to applaud Google’s effort. They, ridiculously, tried to create an Apple TV replacement, at only 300% of the cost! Oh, wait. THAT DOESN’T WORK. The Nexus Q was going to be cool, but never at $299, or anything more than $99. It’s a fun experiment, but it should have never left the labs. The problem is; sometimes Google lets things escape the labs that have no business doing so. Luckily, the Nexus Q has faded into black while their better suited items float to the forefront. A $50 Nexus Q would have kicked off a revolution (despite flaws) a $300 one? see ya later! Via Gizmodo, more here.

Is the Lenovo Chromebook right for education? - I am a big fan of the Chromebook, especially the ARM version. It hit the six hour mark, was inexpensive, and had the ability to operate on and off line. Lenovo’s version is more powerful, and great form factor. Any Chromebook is good for education, so long as your students have broadband. Lenovo has best of breed business devices, so I have to believe that their Chromebook solution can work. Via BetaNews, more here.

The deluge of IoT sensor data collected from connected devices and the powerful AI required to make that data actionable are giving rise to a hybrid ecosystem in which cloud, on-prem and edge processes become interweaved. Attendees will learn how emerging composable infrastructure solutions deliver the adaptive architecture needed to manage this new data reality. Machine learning algorithms can better anticipate data storms and automate resources to support surges, including fully scalable GPU-c...

Machine learning has taken residence at our cities' cores and now we can finally have "smart cities." Cities are a collection of buildings made to provide the structure and safety necessary for people to function, create and survive. Buildings are a pool of ever-changing performance data from large automated systems such as heating and cooling to the people that live and work within them. Through machine learning, buildings can optimize performance, reduce costs, and improve occupant comfort by ...

The explosion of new web/cloud/IoT-based applications and the data they generate are transforming our world right before our eyes. In this rush to adopt these new technologies, organizations are often ignoring fundamental questions concerning who owns the data and failing to ask for permission to conduct invasive surveillance of their customers. Organizations that are not transparent about how their systems gather data telemetry without offering shared data ownership risk product rejection, regu...

René Bostic is the Technical VP of the IBM Cloud Unit in North America. Enjoying her career with IBM during the modern millennial technological era, she is an expert in cloud computing, DevOps and emerging cloud technologies such as Blockchain. Her strengths and core competencies include a proven record of accomplishments in consensus building at all levels to assess, plan, and implement enterprise and cloud computing solutions.
René is a member of the Society of Women Engineers (SWE) and a m...

Poor data quality and analytics drive down business value. In fact, Gartner estimated that the average financial impact of poor data quality on organizations is $9.7 million per year. But bad data is much more than a cost center. By eroding trust in information, analytics and the business decisions based on these, it is a serious impediment to digital transformation.

Predicting the future has never been more challenging - not because of the lack of data but because of the flood of ungoverned and risk laden information. Microsoft states that 2.5 exabytes of data are created every day. Expectations and reliance on data are being pushed to the limits, as demands around hybrid options continue to grow.

Digital Transformation and Disruption, Amazon Style - What You Can Learn. Chris Kocher is a co-founder of Grey Heron, a management and strategic marketing consulting firm. He has 25+ years in both strategic and hands-on operating experience helping executives and investors build revenues and shareholder value. He has consulted with over 130 companies on innovating with new business models, product strategies and monetization. Chris has held management positions at HP and Symantec in addition to ...

Enterprises have taken advantage of IoT to achieve important revenue and cost advantages. What is less apparent is how incumbent enterprises operating at scale have, following success with IoT, built analytic, operations management and software development capabilities - ranging from autonomous vehicles to manageable robotics installations. They have embraced these capabilities as if they were Silicon Valley startups.

As IoT continues to increase momentum, so does the associated risk. Secure Device Lifecycle Management (DLM) is ranked as one of the most important technology areas of IoT. Driving this trend is the realization that secure support for IoT devices provides companies the ability to deliver high-quality, reliable, secure offerings faster, create new revenue streams, and reduce support costs, all while building a competitive advantage in their markets. In this session, we will use customer use cases...

With more than 30 Kubernetes solutions in the marketplace, it's tempting to think Kubernetes and the vendor ecosystem has solved the problem of operationalizing containers at scale or of automatically managing the elasticity of the underlying infrastructure that these solutions need to be truly scalable. Far from it. There are at least six major pain points that companies experience when they try to deploy and run Kubernetes in their complex environments. In this presentation, the speaker will detail these pain points and explain how cloud can address them.

The deluge of IoT sensor data collected from connected devices and the powerful AI required to make that data actionable are giving rise to a hybrid ecosystem in which cloud, on-prem and edge processes become interweaved. Attendees will learn how emerging composable infrastructure solutions deliver the adaptive architecture needed to manage this new data reality. Machine learning algorithms can better anticipate data storms and automate resources to support surges, including fully scalable GPU-centric compute for the most data-intensive applications. Hyperconverged systems already in place can be revitalized with vendor-agnostic, PCIe-deployed, disaggregated approach to composable, maximizing the value of previous investments.

While DevOps most critically and famously fosters collaboration, communication, and integration through cultural change, culture is more of an output than an input. In order to actively drive cultural evolution, organizations must make substantial organizational and process changes, and adopt new technologies, to encourage a DevOps culture. Moderated by Andi Mann, panelists discussed how to balanc...

The deluge of IoT sensor data collected from connected devices and the powerful AI required to make that data actionable are giving rise to a hybrid ecosystem in which cloud, on-prem and edge processes become interweaved. Attendees will learn how emerging composable infrastructure solutions deliver the adaptive architecture needed to manage this new data reality. Machine learning algorithms can be...

Machine learning has taken residence at our cities' cores and now we can finally have "smart cities." Cities are a collection of buildings made to provide the structure and safety necessary for people to function, create and survive. Buildings are a pool of ever-changing performance data from large automated systems such as heating and cooling to the people that live and work within them. Through ...

As Cybric's Chief Technology Officer, Mike D. Kail is responsible for the strategic vision and technical direction of the platform. Prior to founding Cybric, Mike was Yahoo's CIO and SVP of Infrastructure, where he led the IT and Data Center functions for the company. He has more than 24 years of IT Operations experience with a focus on highly-scalable architectures.

The explosion of new web/cloud/IoT-based applications and the data they generate are transforming our world right before our eyes. In this rush to adopt these new technologies, organizations are often ignoring fundamental questions concerning who owns the data and failing to ask for permission to conduct invasive surveillance of their customers. Organizations that are not transparent about how the...

CI/CD is conceptually straightforward, yet often technically intricate to implement since it requires time and opportunities to develop intimate understanding on not only DevOps processes and operations, but likely product integrations with multiple platforms. This session intends to bridge the gap by offering an intense learning experience while witnessing the processes and operations to build fr...

René Bostic is the Technical VP of the IBM Cloud Unit in North America. Enjoying her career with IBM during the modern millennial technological era, she is an expert in cloud computing, DevOps and emerging cloud technologies such as Blockchain. Her strengths and core competencies include a proven record of accomplishments in consensus building at all levels to assess, plan, and implement enterpris...

Containers and Kubernetes allow for code portability across on-premise VMs, bare metal, or multiple cloud provider environments. Yet, despite this portability promise, developers may include configuration and application definitions that constrain or even eliminate application portability. In this session we'll describe best practices for "configuration as code" in a Kubernetes environment. We wil...

Enterprises are striving to become digital businesses for differentiated innovation and customer-centricity. Traditionally, they focused on digitizing processes and paper workflow. To be a disruptor and compete against new players, they need to gain insight into business data and innovate at scale. Cloud and cognitive technologies can help them leverage hidden data in SAP/ERP systems to fuel their...

Poor data quality and analytics drive down business value. In fact, Gartner estimated that the average financial impact of poor data quality on organizations is $9.7 million per year. But bad data is much more than a cost center. By eroding trust in information, analytics and the business decisions based on these, it is a serious impediment to digital transformation.

Digital Transformation and Disruption, Amazon Style - What You Can Learn. Chris Kocher is a co-founder of Grey Heron, a management and strategic marketing consulting firm. He has 25+ years in both strategic and hands-on operating experience helping executives and investors build revenues and shareholder value. He has consulted with over 130 companies on innovating with new business models, product...

Cloud computing budgets worldwide are reaching into the hundreds of billions of dollars, and no organization can survive long without some sort of cloud migration strategy. Each month brings new announcements, use cases, and success stories.